The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 72: The Vanished Killer

The first-floor lobby was silent. I moved Qinghan to the bed, assuring him a peaceful sleep, then locked the door and blocked it with a chair.

I then jumped off the balcony and stationed myself outside the main entrance, curious about what the innkeeper intended to do.

The innkeeper picked up the woman whose husband had gone missing from among the guests sprawled all over, carrying her out of the inn and placing her outside the courtyard gate.

The innkeeper put her down, muttering continuously, urging to take her away quickly, claiming the people were now gathered. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Her voice was filled with deep fear, and after mumbling, she hurriedly ran back inside the inn.

I hid in the thick fog by the wall, watching her flashlight disappear, and quickly darted out, picked up the woman on the ground, climbed back up to the second-floor balcony, and hid her in our room.

The innkeeper returned to the lobby, dropped a white tablet into a glass, drank the water, and soon fell asleep.

I filmed her secretly with my phone, capturing her placing the tablets and drinking the water, then sleeping behind everyone. She would never think someone was still awake outside the window.

Afterward, I went to the kitchen, dug out the leftovers from the night’s meal from the trash, packed them in a plastic bag, intending to keep them as evidence.

"Girl, you shouldn’t meddle." The middle-aged man, who had been lying down, suddenly sat up.

At this moment, I was holding the plastic bag with the leftovers, planning to hide it outside the inn.

"I’m not meddling; there’s no standard for missing people. Everyone staying in this inn is involved in it. I’m just minding my own business." Although a bit surprised, this level of an unexpected situation was not enough to shock me.

"But the innkeeper has just sent someone out. You could easily play dumb. As long as we hit the numbers this year, you and I will be safe."

"Your sense of justice will harm you, or your boyfriend."

The two middle-aged men posed as if they knew everything, but unfortunately, they were wrong. I’m in this mess out of curiosity, not an overwhelming sense of justice.

"So why are you here? Just for a show?"

"No, we’re here to end it all. Here’s my business card."

I glanced at the card, noting the title and names. These two men were brothers, one named Xiong Aopang, the other Xiong Xiangbo.

Their names made me dizzy, so I simply referred to them as Xiong Da and Xiong Er, as they were brothers anyway.

"President of the Supernatural Adventure Society and Director of the X Incident Investigation Office," I read the titles on the card softly. These two organizations must be civil ones, but I could roughly guess their intent.

Their curiosity and inquisitiveness far exceeded mine. I only got involved by coincidence, whereas they sought to participate even if there were no strange occurrences.

"I see you’re the reckless ones. Since we’re at this point, would you mind sharing what you know?"

"Thirty-five years ago, there was a series of murders here. The police later found the bodies of seven victims, but the killer was never found."

"The night of the incident was just like this, with thick fog and heavy rain. At that time, the inn was run by an old couple. Six guests were staying at the inn that night."

The two took turns recounting the information they knew. Thirty-five years ago, on a foggy, rainy night, there were eight people in this inn, later seven bodies were discovered by the police, and one person was missing.

The scene only had traces of blood from the inn’s landlords and five other guests, with no trace of the sixth guest’s blood, not even fingerprints.

But there were his bloody footprints on-site, indicating that this person killed the innkeeper couple and the five other guests.

Then the person vanished, with bloody footprints leading only to the courtyard outside the main door. Beyond the gate, there were no traces.

Unless the killer spread wings and flew away as soon as he exited the gate, disappearing into the deep mountains, never appearing again.

Otherwise, he would have been found by the police. Even though his ID was fake upon check-in, and there were no cameras back then, it would have been difficult for the perpetrator to blend into a crowd and go missing in such a remote wilderness.

However, the fact is, police set up roadblocks on all nearby roads and still didn’t find a trace of the perpetrator.

The roads were guarded, and since he had no food or water, hiding in the deep mountains alone was impossible; it would be a dead end if he really did.

"Later, the inn changed hands several times, and every seven years there would be a case of a missing guest. Those dying inside the inn would have their bodies preserved, but those who left would never be found, alive or dead."

I picked up on a crucial point and immediately asked, "You mean, once someone leaves the inn, even if they die, their body won’t be found?"

Xiong Da nodded, "The current innkeeper was also deceived by the previous owner, unaware of what had happened here, and spent all her savings to buy this place."

I asked, "If she didn’t know, why did she send that woman out?"

Xiong Er sneered, "Fear of death. Many people approach the unknown with a mindset of ’better safe than sorry.’ If you spread our words and it turns out to be true, for the inn’s business and her own life, she’s likely to take extreme actions."

Xiong Da continued, "Previous owners also did similar things, attributing the guests’ disappearance to accidents and later found excuses, like emigrating, to sell the inn."

The inn’s secret was deliberately concealed by these owners, only re-emerging when the fog descended again, bringing the secret to light once more.

Thirty-five years ago, domestic tourism was not as developed as it is today. At the time of the first case, the guests staying at the inn were mostly on business trips or had missions to carry out, temporarily seeking refuge due to bad weather.

But later, as tourism in the Tibetan area prospered, the inn never lacked its ’sacrificial lambs.’ Over the years, every seven years, there were more and more guests staying here.

Maybe because there were more people, the killer no longer rushed in to kill indiscriminately. He targeted seven people, no more, no less.

"There’s one question: if the killer has been committing crimes in the same place for over thirty years, where does he hide? How does he survive? Why can’t the police find him?" I asked consecutively, but judging by Xiong Da and Xiong Er’s expressions, it seemed my questioning was unnecessary.

"If he were human, he couldn’t possibly vanish without a trace. Nowadays, roads have traffic surveillance; cars would be captured on camera. If he leaves while the fog is thick, he can’t drive. If he waits for the fog to clear, the car would be spotted. So, he should have no car, and it wouldn’t be possible to survive hiding in the mountains without food or water."

"Are you saying all this to prove the killer isn’t human?"

"If he were human, it wouldn’t be us brothers standing here."